2 June 2001

International Conference Link-up - London Professor gives live paper to Health Service Delegates in Australia

Len Bowers has facilitated the international psychiatric nursing e-mail list for the last eight years. This e-mail list has brought more psychiatric nurses together worldwide in a real sense of community than any other forum ever!

Recently, videoconferencing facilities have been added courtesy of GroupIntervisual. The technology was demonstrated at the 2001 Cairns Winter Symposium in North East Australia, where Len Bowers addressed delegates from his study in Wimbledon, London, and people around the world later had an opportunity to chat with conference participants and other group members around the globe.

Read a full report of the conference here.

Conference presenter, Professor Len Bowers, described the experience of presenting by international videoconference link-up to listmembes afterwards:

"About fifteen minutes ago I addressed a conference in Australia from my home in London UK, using the videoconferencing facility provided by Ben's company, Groupintervisual.

I can't speak for the audience, but from my point of view everything went well. It felt very strange. It really was like temporarily being at a conference, even though I had just got out of bed in the early morning and was at home. I could see the audience, sat in a wonderful large room. I could hear them respond to what I was saying. It was kind of a mixture of good/strange/marvellous/bizarre. Plus a real sense of being in on something very new that will eventually have an impact on all our lives, professional, and probably personal too.

Without the list and its members this would never have taken place. I wouldn't have known any nurses in North Queensland, wouldn't have had any contact with them. They would have been socially as well as physically on the other side of the world. Because of the list, I've known people like Richard Lakeman for many years, swapped ideas with them, been influenced by what that had to say, grown through that, and now had the opportunity to speak at a conference because of those connections.

It's been a landmark event for me, one I'll remember for a long time. You, the listmembers, this ongoing community of psychiatric nurses round the world, with all the argument, debate, tantrums and teachings, you as a community make this kind of thing happen."

Tom Ryan, conference organiser, had this to say:

'Twas indeed a landmark event. I'm just back from the symposium which was held in Palm Cove about 400km from my home town of Townsville or just around the corner in North Queensland terms. Len's short address to the symposium went over well and yes, it did feel a bit odd. Part of that feeling for me was about being on the threshold of what I feel is a 'tightening' of the world community of psychiatric nursing, or at least that community as it is represented on this list. Part of it is no doubt the knowledge that the person you are seeing and speaking to is on the other side of the globe 9 hours behind you in the day.

I would like to think that such encounters will become a regular feature of our symposiums in North Queensland. I had my quiet doubts about the idea of leaving the connection open while the delegates roistered in Palm Cove on a tropical evening but in the event I thought that it worked quite well. I'm not sure how our UK colleagues felt about communicating with vociferous antipodeans quaffing copious quantities of red wine, particularly as it was mid-morning their time, but numerous friendly chats appeared to progress and many enjoyed meeting Felicity's cat. Such things are important - they impart a humanness to people that does not appear in a text message.

I hope that physical visits increase. It's hard to share a meal and a drink online. It's nice to see Phil and Poppy again and just by the way Phil spent some time explaining the tidal model in some detail without passing the hat round :). It was pleasant also to meet David Skidmore and Mark Montgomery who can deliver a serious academic message in a way that would teach Morecambe and Wise a thing or two. I don't think that the advent of the video links will decrease the personal visits and exchanges - quite the reverse as has been the case with the list.

So my thanks to Len and Ben and to Richard at this end who has championed the cause. I suppose that I shall have to buy one of those bloody cameras soon - it's just that they look so Orwellian!

Conference organiser Richard Lakeman reflected on videoconferencing generally:

"In North Queensland, Australia, video conferencing and telemedicine is well established tool for education and medical consultation across vast distances. Therefore the experience of using videoconferencing over the internet was not particularly novel. More daunting perhaps was the anticipation of meeting (virtually) face to face, people whom I had got to know over some years through e-mail, and shattering the images I had constructed of them in that time! Just as many people find it hard to adapt to and build relationships using e-mail, it can be challenging to adapt to video conferencing. Indeed, many people (at least the less extroverted) will find face to face chat more anxiety provoking than e-mail, where one can thoughtfully and without concern for one's visual image compose or respond to others. It is easy to appreciate though that this technology will be the norm for many in the future as people have access to faster and faster internet connections. As a psychiatric nurse the potential for therapy and clinical supervision to occur over the internet may more easily be realised. "